February 21, 2010: Lemon slice, twice

You may have noticed the increasing frequency of vegan and gluten-free recipes on this blog. We have a number of friends embarking on such diets (and one even taking on both simultaneously!). I reckon our vegan cooking skills have developed enormously over the past year and I'm keen to become a similarly confident gluten-free cook.

With this in mind, I'm challenging myself to produce a vegan and/or gluten-free version of each 2010 calendar recipe. January was a breeze - the original salad recipe ticked both boxes right away. February brought a lemon slice, with all the wheat flour and egg-and-milk custard you'd expect. Nevertheless, I had a few substitutions in mind and planned to bake half-batches of the original and tinkered-with recipes on the same afternoon.

The base is a relatively typical biscuity affair of butter, sugar, vanilla and flour. It was just as easy to blend together Nuttelex, sugar, vanilla and a gf flour mix with a fork for my alterna-slice. Both versions proved sticky and awkward to mush into their papered loaf tins - I had no hope of pressing them in with my fingers and tried instead to spread them out with the back of the spoon. The more golden-looking one on the left is the original version.

The original came out of the oven looking much more golden again. I'm not sure whether it's the butter or the flour substitute but the alterna-crust barely coloured up at all, even though it was clearly cooked and even starting to dry out.

The lemon custard was always going to need some more creative thinking - I needed something to replace the eggs and ensure it would set. Based on the orange-Szechuan pepper icecream I recently made, I got to thinking about arrowroot. (Why I didn't just think about No Egg powder, I'm not sure.) I just threw it into the vegan 'custard' by the tablespoonful and hoped for the best. This time it was the distinctly golden caramel-looking layer, up against a very eggy-looking classic custard.

I plonked them into the oven and waited. And waited and waited. In fact, I made two careless mistakes that meant these slices were sitting in a ~100°C oven for about half an hour before I got them to the advised temperature. After they'd had their turn and more, I pulled them both out of the oven - the original recipe was looking eggy but well set. By contrast, much of the alterna-custard was still liquid. I was a little disappointed, but not devastated. I figured this kind of baking mis-step would be inevitable on the road to gobble-worthy gluten-free baked goods.

I was pretty surprised when I returned 20 minutes later and discovered that the alterna-custard had set completely as the slice cooled. In fact, this was a rather handsome and tasty lemon jelly-on-shortbread combo! Some of the edges were a touch burnt and the jelly was getting stuck in my teeth but I suspect these both come from over-baking. I think this recipe's just a reduced-bake away from satisfaction. (Well, almost - I committed a gluten-free FAIL by substituting dairy milk with evil, glutinous oat milk. I'll get me some proper gluten-free vegan milk next time. Or even just water - I'm not sure that milk's necessary here at all.)

While I was rather pleased, all up, with my alterna-slice it was clearly not what the original recipe intended. Here the base unexpectedly rose into an almost cakey affair, with the custard forming a thinner frothy layer on top. This was very nice indeed. I wonder if a bit of baking powder in my alterna-slice might encourage this effect. (I'm in two minds as to whether I'd even want that, though.)

I couldn't have asked for more success in my naive conversion of a traditional recipe. Though my new version is a very different beast to the original, it has its own charms. What's more, I've learned a bit about arrowroot along the way and am keen to continue playing with it. I wonder if it'd make a nice agar replacement for that pie I made last year.

Traditional lemon slice
(from Robyn's 2010 recipe calendar)

base
125 g butter, softened
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups plain flour

filling
4 eggs
1 cup castor sugar
2 tablespoons plain flour
1/2 cup milk
grated rind and juice of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the base and sides of a small baking tray with paper (I would use something measuring about 20cm square).

Prepare the base by creaming together the butter, sugar and vanilla - if your butter is well-softened you'll be able to do this by hand with a fork. Sift over the flour and mix it in well. Transfer the mixture to the baking tray, using the back of a spoon to spread it out across the base and ideally also an inch up the sides. Bake the base for about 10 minutes or until it begins to brown. Set the base aside to cool.

Whisk together all of the filling ingredients until well combined and pour them over the base. Bake the slice for a further 20-25 minutes or until just set. Allow the slice to cool before slicing and serving.

Vegan and gluten-free lemon slice

base
125g Nuttelex
1/4 cup castor sugar
1 teaspoon vanilla
1 1/3 cups gluten-free plain flour

filling
2 tablespoons arrowroot
1 cup castor sugar
1 tablespoon gluten-free plain flour
1/2 cup vegan gluten-free milk
zest and juice of 2 lemons

Preheat the oven to 180°C and line the base and sides of a small baking tray with paper (I would use something measuring about 20cm square).

Prepare the base by beating together the Nuttelex, sugar and vanilla with a fork. Sift over the flour and mix it in well. Transfer the mixture to the baking tray, using the back of a spoon to spread it out across the base and ideally also an inch up the sides. Bake the base for about 10 minutes or until it just begins to dry out. Set the base aside to cool.

Whisk together all of the filling ingredients until well combined and pour them over the base. Bake the slice for a further 20-25 minutes. Don't worry if it's still liquidy! It will set up as it cools. Once the slice is cool and set, slice and serve.